Third-Year Event Attracts Wide Range Of Enthusiasts

Although Sebring, FL is home to America's oldest and most famous road racing track, the focus this weekend is on light sport aircraft's premiere four-day event, which brought hundreds to Sebring Regional Airport Thursday to touch, sit in, and speak with the dealers about all things LSA.

ANN will be in Sebring all weekend to cover the activities and programs, and share directly from those-in-the-know what is coming down the road for LSA and Sport Pilot.

Slick paint designs, state-of-the-art avionics, and prices under $100,000 for ready-to-fly planes attracted the locals and the not-so-local to Sebring on the first day. Older pilots were in abundance early in the day, sitting in on seminars about sport pilot certification... and later climbing into aircraft seats, inspecting propellers, and kicking some tires.

For many, LSA is a way to remain in aviation, and hold onto their dreams of flying to far away places. For others, it was a reminder of just how much as changed in aviation since, said one gentleman, his time teaching pilots in the original Piper Cub back in the 1940s.

A younger, middle-aged crowd seemed to be more visible later in the afternoon... looking under the cowls, talking in detail to dealers, and comparing model specifications.

Also notable this year: Cessna is very much in attendance, with numerous yellow polo shirts around the site and around Cessna's prototype LSA to answer questions to a very interested -- and, apparently, eager -- audience. No formal decision has been announced regarding the future of that prototype... and Cessna's possible entry into the Sport Pilot market.

"It's a great opportunity to bring more pilots to aviation," said John Doman, vice president of propeller American sales, about the LSA market.

Many of the dozens of domestic and European sport pilot entries would be happy to see Cessna enter the fray, validating the market and creating more enthusiasm about the sport.

The 2007 Sebring Expo features 68 exhibitors. It's supported by the EAA and sponsored by nearly two dozen local and national businesses and organizations. General admission is $10 daily, $8 to EAA card-showing members.

Since SP/LSA rules went into effect more than two years ago, 44 models of airplanes, tries, and powered parachutes earned FAA approval, with more than 700 individuals having earned sport pilot certificates.

FMI: www.sport-aviation-expo.com